Prince
Written for the Batman soundtrack, this track uses seduction as camouflage for a darker interrogation of manipulation and…
seduction as manipulation power and control faith versus flattery
Pavement
A loose, half-improvised sketch from Pavement's most polished album, built around family lineage, corrupt authority, and a wry…
inherited guilt paranoia and surveillance authority and corruption
D'Angelo
D'Angelo indicts the entire economy of vice, greed, and hustle that people line up for, while implicating himself as complicit…
greed and materialism complicity and self-implication spiritual/moral corruption
Gang Starr
A cosmic-flight framing device gives way to two verses of dense, mystically-inflected boasting in which Guru and an MC (the…
spiritual elevation vs. street corruption Five Percenter cosmology and self-divinity lyrical supremacy as warfare
Elliott Smith
A quiet, corrosive warning song addressed to someone being courted by fame and the music industry, personified as a seductive…
temptation and corruption the music industry as predator loss of autonomy
Black Sabbath
This is Black Sabbath's title track marking the arrival of Ronnie James Dio, trading the band's earlier horror-movie doom for…
moral ambiguity illusion versus reality corrupted power
Talking Heads
"Swamp" plays like a fever-dream noir, David Byrne narrating a shadowy transaction with the devil and a cast of menacing,…
paranoia moral corruption identity dissolution
King Crimson
A blast of distorted vocals and jagged riffing that catalogues the horrors of modern civilization in fragmented, almost…
dehumanization war and violence political corruption
Elton John
A soft-focus portrait of a woman moving through the early-1970s Los Angeles music scene, seen through the eyes of an admirer who…
idealized femininity life on tour / music-industry culture memory versus presence
Uncle Tupelo
This is Uncle Tupelo's take on the Flying Burrito Brothers standard, a doom-laden vision of Los Angeles as a modern Babylon…
moral corruption of wealth apocalyptic judgment urban decay
The Band
A traveler moves through a haunted, mythic American South, stacking images of slavery, exile, and vice into a single vision of…
historical memory of slavery the blues as witness/testimony original sin and corruption
B.B. King
This is a blues-idiom Christmas song built almost entirely on gratitude and physical warmth rather than religious or sentimental…
romantic gratitude domestic contentment sensual celebration
Lana Del Rey
A woman narrates her devotion to a boyfriend who barely looks up from his console, describing domestic small moments as if they…
self-abnegation in love performed femininity idealized domesticity
Kris Kristofferson
A carnival-barker satire that reimagines hell as a theme park, complete with billboards, ticket lines, and celebrity attractions…
moral corruption as entertainment consumerism and commodified sin celebrity and infamy
The Supremes
A pastoral love song built on borrowed classical melody (adapted from a Baroque minuet traditionally attributed to Bach,…
idealized romance nature as backdrop for love devotion and permanence
Eric B.
A New York subway pickup evolves into a slow-building courtship narrative, told from the perspective of a smooth-talking…
courtship and seduction urban geography as narrative backdrop mind versus body
The Jam
A debut single that doubles as a manifesto, announcing a generational voice against the backdrop of late-70s urban Britain. It's…
generational conflict youth identity urban alienation
Portishead
Mysterons opens Dummy with a woozy, disorienting address to someone caught between denial and defiance. Beth Gibbons' vocal…
denial and repression guilt and judgment futility of desire
Genesis
A closing-track anthem of forced optimism, built on simple exhortations to hold on and reach out against a backdrop of urban…
urban alienation perseverance solidarity
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye sketches a wish list for a monogamous, church-going partner against a mid-80s backdrop of promiscuity and disease…
sexual anxiety in the AIDS/herpes era the sacred vs. the profane desire for domestic stability
Mariah Carey
This is Mariah Carey's 1994 cover of the Phil Spector/Ellie Greenwich/Jeff Barry classic, reworked as a Wall-of-Sound production…
loneliness during celebration longing and absence nostalgia for past happiness
PJ Harvey
A duet-style meditation on a fleeting New York encounter, sung against a backdrop of helicopters, sunsets and skyscrapers that…
transience of connection urban alienation desire versus impermanence